Continuing the countdown to Italy 2012, I am looking back at Italy 2006. We decided to stay in

Siena, which is not far from Florence. We wanted a smaller, more relaxing town to stay in, rather than navigating through a large city like Florence. One of my favorite days on this trip was the wine tasting

lunch. We booked it from home with a walking tour before arriving in Italy. I remember having lobster tail, I never eat lobster, but this was the best I ever had. It’s too easy to make it rubbery, but this was

perfect. We were in the Chianti region, so we were to taste 4 wines. Our hostess was Alessandra, and she treated us like we were her family. I apologize, I can’t find the name of the company we used.

I mentioned that I like dessert wine, so she went down to the cellar and brought a red and white up. Yum. We ended up shipping about 10 bottles of wine home, a couple we still haven’t opened!

Siena is a medieval town, surrounded by walls that is famous for its twice yearly horse race, Corsa del Palio, which goes around the main square, Piazza del Campo. One of the most beautiful churches in the town is the

Siena Duomo, which was built between 1215 and 1263. A distinguishing feature is the black and white striped pillars along with the walls of the clerestory. Part of our walking tour included a tour of the

nearby medieval hill town in Tuscany, San Gimignano. Since it is high in the hills, there are beautiful views of the Tuscan landscape. We were going to take a day trip to Florence, but never made it.

Instead, we rented a car and toured the Tuscan countryside, where we ended up in Pisa and Volterra (previous post). First time I had ever seen grape vines! So if you ever decide to visit Tuscany,

I recommend renting a car to explore on your own, if you don’t take part of a tour.